News

USGS Technical Publication on Landsat Surface Reflectance Available

Source: J. W. Jones, M.J. Starbuck, C.B. Jenkerson, USGSJan. 28, 2013 • The U.S. Geological Survey Land Remote Sensing Program is developing an operational capability to produce Climate Data Records (CDRs) and Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) from the Landsat Archive to support a wide variety of science and resource management activities from regional to global scale. The USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center is charged with prototyping systems and software to generate these high-level data products.

Because it is a foundation for many other ECVs, the first CDR in development is the Landsat Surface Reflectance Product (LSRP). This new USGS publication describes two general methods of LSRP quality-data extraction for use in image processing systems. Helpful hints for the installation and use of software originally developed for manipulation of Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) produced through the NASA Earth Observing System are first provided for users who wish to extract quality data into separate HDF files. Next, steps follow to incorporate these extracted data into an image processing system. Finally, an alternative example is illustrated in which the data are extracted within a particular image processing system.